This year's World Junior Hockey Championship took on a special meaning for Canucks fans. For the first time in years, it seems, they could tune into any game at any time and find one of their favourite team's vaunted prospects playing mostly in significant roles for their respective countries.

For many, it was the first time to get an extended look at Elias Pettersson, Will Lockwood and Jonah Gadjovich, and when they had the opportunity, each proved their mettle on the big stage.

It was the prospect Canucks fans were most familiar with though that they were most eager — or perhaps anxious is a more apt descriptor — to get a glimpse of in Olli Juolevi. The 2016 fifth-overall pick had a lot to prove to a fan base growing increasingly apprehensive about that pick with each mounting setback on his journey to the NHL.

Between last year's disastrous world junior result for Team Finland, one which Juolevi bore the captain's C for, and...

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